However, it said in February this decision hinged upon the relaxation of regulation in place to protect citizens from supposedly harmful effects of radio waves.

Within the company's Q2 results, which revealed a fall in operating profit of 8.6 percent to CHF1.09 billion and sales increase of 2.1 percent to CHF2.92 billion, the operator said its 5G plans had been derailed by government policy.

It said: "The rapid nationwide deployment of a 5G network will be delayed and thus more expensive, however, due to the strict limits that continue to prevail in Switzerland.

"The political system is called upon to quickly adapt the framework conditions so that Switzerland does not lose any of its competitiveness."